Construction on the new hotel on the Bypass is set to begin as early as Monday.
City officials and executives from Sulai Hospitality, Inc. ceremonially broke ground Friday morning on the soon-to-be-built 55,000-square-foot Holiday Inn Express. The hotel, to be located at 1000-1012 N. Baldwin Ave. will have 90 rooms, a pool, a meeting room and a fitness room once it’s completed, which is currently set for March or April of next year.
Mitesh Patel, an associate for Sulai Hospitality, said he and the company are excited to be opening a brand new hotel in north Marion. From the day Sulai Hospitality, Inc. decided to build a Marion hotel, to having the city council approve a tax abatement, to construction – all taking just 90 days – is one of the fastest turnarounds for the company, Patel said.
“Marion is a great community,” Patel said. “Everyone knows one another here. It’s kind of in our blood to be in the tertiary markets. You can make a much bigger impact on the community.”
The new hotel, which will be the latest model of the Holiday Inn Express, will turn what is currently a vacant lot into a modern commercial property. Sulai Hospitality is currently trying to bring in a restaurant to sit in front of the hotel, but nothing has been decided yet, though Patel said he personally wishes to see a Chick-fil-A or a steakhouse fill the vacancy.
Excavators are expected to begin tilling the ground Monday. Marion’s own Sullivan Excavating has been hired to start the construction.
The hotel received a boost from the city council January when it voted to give Sulai Hospitality, Inc. a phased-in, 10 year tax abatement that will save the company more than half a million dollars. Patel said the abatement allowed construction to start so soon. The hotel, he added, would have likely been built without the abatement, though construction wouldn’t have begun until the end of the year.
The need for another hotel was questioned by current owners of the Marion Comfort Suites and Hampton Inn this past January, given Marion’s declining occupancy rates, but Marion Mayor Jess Alumbaugh said he expects the hotels to do well.
“With Indiana Wesleyan continuing to grow, bringing in more and more for their campus, the new rooms will prove to be worthwhile,” Alumbaugh said. “More importantly, it’s going to change the look of the Bypass. This property has been vacant for a while. It will now take on a beautiful look. Holiday Express is a worldwide company. They’ll keep it looking nice.”